First National Tribal Carnival will be held in Delhi soon. The carnival will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister. This was announced by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram in New Delhi today while inaugurating the conference of State Tribal Welfare Ministers/principal secretaries/secretaries to evolve strategies for overall development of tribal communities. He said the purpose of this carnival is to showcase and promote various facets of tribal culture on a large scale. The minister said, “The underlying idea is to preserve and promote various facets of the tribal life relating to culture, tradition, customs and their skills and to expose it to the general population with a view to utilising the potential for overall holistic development of the Scheduled Tribes.” Activities liked displaying documented traditional socio-culture aspects, collection of art/artifacts, cultural performances, demonstration of skills like sports, paintings, traditional healing practices et al. will be part of the Four day event. The minister said, “The thematic panel discussion on issues like tribal health, education, skill development and culture with experts in the relevant filed will be a part of the carnival”.
Oram said Government initiated specific interventions in the form of Eklavya Model Residential Schools, Ashram Schools besides provision of hostels for ST boys and girls across the country have obviously contributed in raising the level of education among STs, yet it needs improvement to cope up with the modern needs of the market in terms of merit generation. He said, “The dropout among ST students have been the matter of concern for us and needs to be dealt with persuasive efforts.” He said the dearth of teachers in these schools especially in the streams of science, maths and English needs due attention. Oram said, “let’s us pledge for enhancing the level of education among tribals in a big way so as to channelise their potential towards achieving inclusive growth.”
Referring to the status of health services for the tribal as not very encouraging the Union Tribal Affairs Minister said some times, formal health services are not acceptable to the tribals. Hence, integration of traditional medicine and tribal healing system becomes necessary. He said, “Due to unwillingness of the health workers to work in the remote areas, suitable training and education of tribal students to become qualified health workers becomes important.” Expressing concern over sickle cell anemia among tribals the minister said his ministry has flagged the mapping of sickle cell anemia and workshops were organised in various states on the issue. Oram expressed the hope that mapping exercise has been completed by all the states and requested them to share the results with Union Tribal Affairs Ministry at the earliest to enable it to chalk out further strategy to combat the menace. Terming the unemployment position among scheduled tribes as acute the Minister said there is a need to find innovative solution to make agriculture sustainable and remunerative activity to create gainful employment. Oram said, “ST farmers should be trained in allied occupations such as Dairy, horticulture, floriculture, fisheries, poultry with backward and forward linkages to increase their sustainable income.”
Underlining the importance of skill development for tribals the Minister urged the states to come out with the strategy to map the skill needs of their region with a view to absorb S trainees in remunerative occupations. He said the proposals prepared by the State Government should be fashioned in such a way that the capacity of existing institutions which are involved in providing skill development like ITIs, VTCs et al. could be optimally utilised.
The Union Tribal Affairs Minister expressed concern over non-serious NGOs in the social sector. He said while in remote areas and left wing effected areas where outreach of government agencies is limited, it is desirable to join hands with the NGOs with the local roots and sense of service. At the same time, we need to be very cautious while dealing with them, as it is difficult to recognise which of them are really committed towards their stated cause, the minister added. Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava, Union Minister of State of Tribal Affairs and Shyam Aggrawal, Secretary, Tribal Affairs also spoke on the occasion.